Who saw this in cinemas back in 91/92?


Who saw this back in the day? What were your memories - the anticipation of seeing it in the weeks/days before, the actually seeing it and how much a big deal was it where you were back then, the crowds, audience etc and after coming out of the cinema what were your thoughts and in the days/weeks that followed….


i remember before VI came out reading the updates of info from various sources like the letters editorial in the back of the Trek DC comics at the time (which I bought monthly for a couple of years), The Official FanClub magazine (which I bought occasionally) and various magazines like Starlog and Starburst (which I very rarely bought, just flicked through). Obviously there was no net back then so checking out the magazines in comic stores on a Saturday was they way to do it.

I remember being fascinated that it was to be a klingon based story (the first proper klingon film since III), that it would involve the klingon homeworld, an ice prison planet, Captain Sulu, the excelsior, a new BOP and battle cruiser (not seen since TMP!), new space dock scenes (not just reusing FX from previous films), romulans, possible TNG connections, a TNG tie in episode, and of course Meyer directing again...there were also rumours a major character would die (Kirk?). It all sounded really exciting - far more so than the previous one. Almost like the ultimate Trek movie was being made - encompassing elements of all the previous films (unlike V which was pretty stand alone) and even TNG, whilst also being a sort of 25th anniversary capper so expect some strong visual ties to TOS (which I felt the previous films didn’t do so much). I don’t think the regular film goers/media were that bothered about VI - due to V being ridiculed, TNG becoming a real force (due to its great 3rd season), and the fact it was the sixth film (so in the eyes of non fans it was almost getting like Police Academy in terms of cracking them out) But for me the anticipation was HUGE (despite the disappointment of the last film) and usually when its at that level a film can only disappoint - but it didn’t. in fact it surpassed my expectations. was just amazing from start to finish. Incredible FX (felt like T2 with the blood and shapeshifter), felt like an epic star trek (as in going from planet to planet unlike some of the other films). feel good like IV, epic battle at the end. remember thinking it was the best one of all 6 (not now though) a true continuation and conclusion to Treks II, III, IV. (and totally made up for V. in fact V being like it was kind of made VI feel even more of a treat!). In fact for a while (maybe a couple of years) I considered it the best Trek film (yes even better than Khan!). Actually I think it was pretty much the same in Trekdom e.g. Check out the Trek VI Cinefantastique issue and in there Ed Gross reviews all the films in a sidebar that goes throughout the magazine and he gives VI a higher rating than II and said it was now considered the best Trek film.

It was also good to see the regular Movie goers/media give it great reviews, buzz etc. almost like a ‘sleeper’ they weren’t expecting anything of due to the reasons mentioned, yet it turned out to be a great film so it became one to see for even non fans


I also remember buying all the memorabilia for the film (I did for each trek movie but recall VI most of all) it was actually the Friday Dec 13 1991 and went in the comic store and saw the brand new hot off the press official Star Trek VI starlog movie magazine and the deluxe DC Adaptation and my head just about exploded http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek_VI:_The_Undiscovered_Country_-_The_Official_Movie_Magazine http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek_VI:_The_Undiscovered_Country_(comic) (the film wouldn't be out until Feb in UK though so pretty much knew the story backward by then - kind of stupid of me in hindsight) – also picked up the Pocket Books novel, soundtrack, plus the posters (teaser and main one sheet – both of which were awesome and probably the best Trek movie posters.. was obsessed with tracking them down eventually buying several different versions.http://www.impawards.com/1991/star_trek_vi_ver2.html), as well as the superb aforementioned Trek VI Cinefantastique magazine which became expanded in the book 'Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI' which was an absolute fascinating read and is my all time fave Trek book (its kind of an 'unofficial' making of book that went with the Making of the Trek Films book by Ed Gross)
http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Charting_the_Undiscovered_Country:_The_Making_of_Trek_VI
http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Making_of_the_Trek_Films

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I was mixed. I enjoyed it more than The Final Frontier, but so much of the movie seemed so out of place and "not Star Trek" I had a hard time really liking it. Not a fan of the score either.

And the should have just used "Death Blossom" at the end to take out Kang's ship.

"Live long and suck it, Zachary Quinto!"

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Yep, I saw back in the UK at the old ABC cinema(now Odeon) in Canterbury. I can remember that the film got a decent review from Barry Norman and also Empire gave it 3 stars(okay, but nothing special - according to them). I do remember the audience laughing when it's revealed what part of the anatomy Kirk kicked the alien in when fighting him. I think that the whole morphing stuff was very in vogue then - what with T2 coming out earlier. I also think that the CGI Klingon blood was very much of its time - it does add a whole sort of surreal edge to that scene. I loved the whole "whodunnit" nature of the story, found it quite intriguing. ST 6 is my favourite of the films.

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Yep and was not disappointed still one of the best star trek movies and only sits behind the trilogy

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I was 7 when this came out and the first adult oriented film I saw in theaters. I remember being very excited to see it and blown away after seeing it. Beyond that I don't have a lot of more specific memories of what I thought about it. It is still my second favorite trek film, just slightly behind WOK.

Abide.

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I went with my girlfriend (yes I actually had a girlfriend at that time) and she wasn't a Trekkie but when the Klingon ship was destroyed she cheered. I really liked it. Felt like the original TV show in a way... how the characters acted... the interior of the ship looked the best.

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The first Trek movie I saw I theatres. I was 10 years old and loved every second of it. Saw it with my Dad, and I think it was an early evening show during the week. Not too busy if I remember right, but the audience seemed really into it.

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My memories were of it being filmed at Industrial Light & Magic in San Rafael California. I was doing some work at ILM and walked on to the stage in D building and saw the Enterprise model being filmed against a blue screen. I was amazed and had not known they were filming another Star Trek film. I had done work with ILM for years as an equipment supplier and had pretty good access to the facility. I also saw the Excelsior model also. I love this film and having been around during the filming makes it a bit more special.

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What a great way to find out a new Trek film was being made! Just think what u saw probably ended up in the actual film. Was better when the used actual models you knew they were actual physical ships not CG. How big would you say the models were?

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Bozo... I wasn't there but know the models were about six feet long

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I saw it. I recall the previews on tv loooooooooong before youtube hoping to catch them during a commercial break. The movie looked awesome but I was disturbed by Kirk's 'WE SURRENDER!' line that was always shown and a bird of prey launching a torpedo.
I saw it in the Dover mall and I remember it was cold outside the theater was pretty packed. THe movie seemed to mirror the events goign on at the time with the Soviet Union collapsing and the warsaw pact countries breaking up and going their own way.

An exciting time and a great last original Trek movie

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It was a great time. I remember reading early on that the film would focus on Klingons, and I won't lie, I was extremely disappointed. Klingons were starting to be rubbed into the ground. Every movie seemed to have Klingons in it, as if the studio was afraid to not have them and mandated it. I thought to myself, why do we have to have ANOTHER Klingon story? While I love The Next Generation, one thing I was never very thrilled with was the way they depicted the Klingons. Now I loved Worf, but I am talking about the Klingon race and culture. Early stories with Kheylar and Worf taking the fall for what the Duras family had done was interesting, but the entire society of Klingons who all dress the same and growl like animals and such was sort of getting on my nerves. They ran with the whole honor thing to the point of tedium, and I hated how the wigs got bigger and bigger each time they were used. I found that the Klingons had, somewhere along the way, become the stuff that makes Star Trek so damned uber-nerdy and sort of embarrassing, what with fans dressing like them and speaking Klingon in real life. And to boot, we were fresh out of one of the worst use of Klingons ever...Star Trek V The Final Frontier where we get a laughable Klingon "villain" who is forced to apologize to Kirk by a burping retired Klingon general. I was tired of Klingons.

With that said, the infamous first trailer came along that I accidentally caught on Coming Attractions on E Entertainment Television (you guys remember that?). The celebratory trailer really got my Trek blood to flowing and I found myself very excited about the movie. I felt that something special was coming. It's worth posting and watching again, as it is such a great trailer...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdwMQcBxQac. Later on, the main trailer premiered, and my initial lack of enthusiasm for Klingons disappeared. I thought it looked great and really made me want to see this film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=638S8n2_Ab8 I was very excited by the cast...David Warner, Christopher Plummer, Kim Catrall, the exotic Iman. The effects looked really good and I loved seeing the classic Klingon ship return, and the story looked intriguing. Sulu as Captain! Does Kirk get vaporized? I couldn't wait until December!

On vacation, we went to see Silence of the Lambs at a big fancy theater. They had a huge banner advertising the film. It was like this, http://www.ioffer.com/img/item/249/863/97/star-trek-vi-undiscovered-co untry-teaser-poster-624f4.jpg, but much wider. I remember being so excited by it, haha! Finally, the film premiered and I saw it.

Well, my first reaction to the film was a tad mixed. I really liked it, but a few little things didn't sit well with me. I didn't feel that Nick Meyer quite captured what he had done way back in Star Trek II. It seemed like he was so carried away with making the environment on Enterprise so nautical that it was distracting. I really thought it was weird to see scenes of the crew searching their clothing drawers and going through laundry, or their little bunks as if they were on a submarine. Also, Chekov stood out to me as being presented as somewhat of an idiot, there for comic relief. It also felt weird that the Klingon court scene seemed so based on 20th century American legal systems. These were little things that left me going hmmmm, but overall I really liked the film. It was pretty crowded, and the movie elicited cheers when the Bird of Prey was destroyed, something I don't see happen often in my movie-going experiences.

I ended up seeing this in cinemas six times and enjoying it more and more every time, despite the little things I mentioned above. One of those times, I went to see it with my family. I remember my mom leaning over and saying to me, "is she the conspirator?" regarding Valeris very early on in the film, which exposed just how obvious the actual whodunit plot really was (hey, no one would have seen it coming had they used Saavik instead). I was so glad to have this film, though, as a proper sendoff for the original cast. I loved the parallel to Chernobyl, I loved the direction they took the Klingon story, setting the stage for the peace-time allies the Klingons are in The Next Generation, and hell, I really loved the visual effects which were especially appealing after what we got in Trek V. The CGI morphing technology used for the floating Klingon blood stands out as rather unconvincing now, but it was really cool and fun to see back then. What a neat, unexpected sequence!

Lastly, I'd like to say that I really liked how the Klingons were depicted in this movie. They seemed much more in line with the original series Klingons than the rather annoying form they had evolved into in The Next Generation. They were intelligent people who come from a warlike background, not growling oafs who walk around beating their chests. I liked seeing good characters like Chancellor Gorkon and his daughter, or even Brigadier Kerla. Chang was great as a the more traditionally villainous Klingon. I was also glad to see that they weren't showcasing big wigs here at every turn, though we came close to Change having one before Christopher Plummer opted to not have hair at all (what a great on the spot choice he made). These were the Klingons I had grown up on and loved, not the more nerdy take they gave the Klingons of the 24th century. I was very happy that the film proved my initial worries wrong. It's a favorite of mine to this day, even with the little warts I discussed earlier which I still take issues with, but that keep it from being quite as good as The Wrath of Khan. It was also great fun to obtain the laserdisc with all the extra footage, a rare treat for films back then.

Oh, what fond memories. Thanks for the thread and the opportunity to travel back in time to the good ole days of Star Trek!

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

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nice memories

yes Trek VI brought the Klingons back to their TOS coolness!

about that shot of Kirk being vaporized in the trailer - funny it wasn't even used in the main film (they mustve put it in the trailer specially to get fans to go crazy!)

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The trailer sports a few unfinished special effects, so I always assumed that maybe this was either an early visual or a discarded effect. It did spark rumors of Kirk's death back then, though! This film was far better at passing the torch than Generations was. It always got on my nerves that they all acted like they were officially passing the torch in 1994 when it had already been done here in much better fashion, without trying to knock you over the head with it.

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

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yes I agree with you on that - the whole passing the torch thing had been done at the 25th anniversary with VI (how peace with the klingons emerged...Worf...Kirks final log entry) & had nimoy passing the baton in Unification...They didnt really NEED to do a crossover film after that...just a full on TNG movie as TNG was popular in its own right

Anyway when they realised they wouldnt be able to get the 2 enterprises on screen with the 2 complete crews (a Star Trek Avengers type deal - the ultimate culmination of all the previous little interactions - which I guess STG was supposed to be) the crossover film should possibly have been scrapped. one of the writers of Generations even said that as soon as the crossover film was suggested the image that came into his head was a movie poster with the 2 enterprises and Kirk, Spock plus Picard and Data. instead they had to settle for the meeting of the 2 Captains which itself should've been much more of an event that it turned out - picards Xmas nexus was fine but they should've at least had Picard meeting Kirk on Kirks Enterprise (wasn't it kirks ultimate desire to be back in the chair?), and Kirks death was terrible.

that being said I sort of like Generations as it is (apart from Kirk/Picard scenes) but believe a crossover movie would only have been really great (im talking Trek II great) if it had been the 'Yesterdays Enterprise' storyline (yeah it had already been done but certain TOS eps had been ‘remade’ as movies before – TMP/TVH/TFF) so maybe the Ent D finding themselves in the 23rd century not the Ent A in an altered 24th Century

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the whole passing the torch thing had been done at the 25th anniversary with VI (how peace with the klingons emerged...Worf...Kirks final log entry) & had nimoy passing the baton in Unification...They didnt really NEED to do a crossover film after that...just a full on TNG movie as TNG was popular in its own right


Absolutely. I had actually forgotten about "Unification" with Spock, which indeed also played a big role in passing the torch. This aspect of Star Trek Generations was utterly unneeded. Having Kirk in Generations was awful, and it reeked of being an awful idea from the moment it was announced. It really ruined the finale of Star Trek VI, as that is the last time we should have seen these characters, flying off into the sunset if you will. Why the need to kill Kirk? Pointless, and very stupidly handled at that. You are right that it should have been a full-on The Next Generation film. Remove the Kirk element and it allows the Nexus story line to take a more important role in the story aside from just existing as a plot device to get Kirk and Picard to ride horses together. I still can't believe the writers messed up such a good science fiction idea the way they did, while crapping all over Star Trek VI's great ending.

Anyway when they realised they wouldnt be able to get the 2 enterprises on screen with the 2 complete crews (a Star Trek Avengers type deal - the ultimate culmination of all the previous little interactions - which I guess STG was supposed to be) the crossover film should possibly have been scrapped.


It never should have even been considered to start with. It's an awful idea and I am certain that a movie where the two crews team up would have been laughably bad, no matter how hard they tried. Simply put, it's the stuff of comic books and bad fan-fiction. I can buy into Enterprise D meeting Enterprise C like they did in "Yesterday's Enterprise, because Enterprise C was exploring a bit of the past and sowing us a completely new crew, a crew that was destined to die. But using the infamous original crew and the infamous TNG crew would have been too ridiculous and end up breaking the all important suspension of disbelief. How convenient for the two crews of the two TV shows to meet in a contrived plot. That sort of thing is beneath Star Trek in my opinion.

that being said I sort of like Generations as it is (apart from Kirk/Picard scenes)


For all of it's problems, Generations is the ONLY film in the series that actually feels like The Next Generation. We have the Enterprise D, the crew in familiar uniforms, villains from the series in the form of Lursa and Betor, references to the series such as Robert and Rene and Data's emotion chip, and some very good character moments such as when Picard mourns the loss of his family to Counselor Troi, the scene with Picard and Data in Stellar Cartography, the scene between Soran and Picard in Ten Forward with the line about "the fire in which we burn", or even the scene where Data finds Spot in the wreckage and cries. These scenes showcase how good a full-on TNG film could have been. The only thing that really messes it all up is the crossover element. It would have been nice to see Enterprise B with a competent crew in action rather than such a forced scenario where everyone must be stupid in order for Kirk to shine. And the ending, oh that contrived nonsense ending.

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

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excellent EXCELLENT post.

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